Tough ads make for a scathing election
Source: Agencies |
October 14, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN the frantic final days before next month's congressional elections in the United States, a blitz of negative ads is hitting the air in more than two dozen tight races.
A challenger in West Virginia stresses a lawmaker's Arab-American ancestry as shadowy and foreign. Other candidates are nothing but liars, misers, cheaters, even traitors, judging by the 30-second TV attacks.
Deep-pocketed independent political groups are making the 2010 election homestretch the most scathing in years.
With a galvanized Republican electorate, a Democratic administration seeking to invigorate its base, incumbents concerned about survival and challengers energized to kick them out, there's a reason it's so disagreeable out there: Tough ads work.
They fire up partisans, provide more information than feel-good ads, and while they may turn off independent voters, they help undecideds make up their minds.
Some warn that candidates who say they're on your side actually care more about Arabs or illegal immigrants than the average American.
In the past month, candidates, the political parties and outside groups have purchased millions of dollars in commercial time. Of the resulting ads, 60 percent have assailed candidates for their stands on issues or for their character, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Most negative ads go after candidates for past votes or statements on relevant issues. But many contests are for seats without incumbents, leading campaigns to look for foibles, or worse, to exploit.
In Nevada, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, faces a Republican former state legislator backed by the Tea Party, Sharron Angle. Reid has been persistently casting Angle's views as extreme.
Angle has fought back, taking to the air with an ad casting Reid as a supporter of "illegal aliens," complete with images of young Latino-looking men lurking near fences or staring menacingly.
In another effort with an ethnic subtext, a group called the West Virginia Conservative Foundation is airing an ad that emphasizes Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall's Arab-American ancestry and his support of President Barack Obama. The ad plays a clip of Rahall, whose family is Lebanese, discussing his efforts to enlist fellow Arab-Americans to support Obama as a presidential candidate. As the clip fades, the ad tells viewers to call Rahall and "tell him to stand with West Virginians."
On Tuesday, Obama told Democratic supporters gathered at George Washington University in Washington not to lose heart because everything they hoped to happen in an Obama administration hasn't come to pass just yet.
He added: "I'm confident that we will do well."
A challenger in West Virginia stresses a lawmaker's Arab-American ancestry as shadowy and foreign. Other candidates are nothing but liars, misers, cheaters, even traitors, judging by the 30-second TV attacks.
Deep-pocketed independent political groups are making the 2010 election homestretch the most scathing in years.
With a galvanized Republican electorate, a Democratic administration seeking to invigorate its base, incumbents concerned about survival and challengers energized to kick them out, there's a reason it's so disagreeable out there: Tough ads work.
They fire up partisans, provide more information than feel-good ads, and while they may turn off independent voters, they help undecideds make up their minds.
Some warn that candidates who say they're on your side actually care more about Arabs or illegal immigrants than the average American.
In the past month, candidates, the political parties and outside groups have purchased millions of dollars in commercial time. Of the resulting ads, 60 percent have assailed candidates for their stands on issues or for their character, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Most negative ads go after candidates for past votes or statements on relevant issues. But many contests are for seats without incumbents, leading campaigns to look for foibles, or worse, to exploit.
In Nevada, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, faces a Republican former state legislator backed by the Tea Party, Sharron Angle. Reid has been persistently casting Angle's views as extreme.
Angle has fought back, taking to the air with an ad casting Reid as a supporter of "illegal aliens," complete with images of young Latino-looking men lurking near fences or staring menacingly.
In another effort with an ethnic subtext, a group called the West Virginia Conservative Foundation is airing an ad that emphasizes Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall's Arab-American ancestry and his support of President Barack Obama. The ad plays a clip of Rahall, whose family is Lebanese, discussing his efforts to enlist fellow Arab-Americans to support Obama as a presidential candidate. As the clip fades, the ad tells viewers to call Rahall and "tell him to stand with West Virginians."
On Tuesday, Obama told Democratic supporters gathered at George Washington University in Washington not to lose heart because everything they hoped to happen in an Obama administration hasn't come to pass just yet.
He added: "I'm confident that we will do well."
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